Israelis Plead Guilty in New Zealand

Two Israelis suspected by New Zealand authorities ofbeing Mossad agents have pleaded guilty to unlawfully attempting to obtaina New Zealand passport.

Uri Kelman, 30, and Elisha Cara, 50, pleaded guilty in Auckland's HighCourt last week. They will remain in custody until a July 15 sentencinghearing. The crime carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. The men had been on bail since their first court appearance in April. Twoother charges against the men of conspiracy for being part of an organizedcrime syndicate have been dropped.

The New Zealand Herald said the guilty plea was to prevent the prosecutionbringing "diplomatically embarrassing" evidence that the men indeed wereMossad agents involved in criminal activity in New Zealand.

But a major New Zealand television station, TVN, sent a camera crew toIsrael to investigate the alleged Mossad connections, but they foundnothing definitive.

There have been rising tensions recently between New Zealand and Israel.

Last month, the New Zealand Government openly criticized Israel's policy ofbulldozing Palestinian homes and donated $534,000 to aid homelessPalestinians.

In May, two officials from the Jewish Agency for Israel were detained atAuckland Airport on suspicion that the two were Mossad agents, drug-runnersor illegally transporting food across borders. One of them reported that hehad been told by a customs agent, "We are treating all you Israelis thesame - you are nothing but drug dealers and spies."

In the passport case, Kelman and Cara applied for a New Zealand passportusing the birth certificate of a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy victim.

Two other men were suspected of being involved in the crime. Zev WilliamBarkan, a neighbor of the cerebral palsy patient, has fled the country. Afourth man remains unidentified.

After an earlier hearing, Cara denied that he had any connections toMossad. But New Zealand's acting foreign minister, Jim Sutton, said at thetime that the men were "representatives of the Israeli government."

The arrests spawned a diplomatic brouhaha between New Zealand and theIsraeli Embassy in Canberra, Australia, which is responsible for NewZealand.

New Zealand media reported that the acting ambassador, Orna Sagiv, had beensummoned to New Zealand where she was "read the riot act." The embassy didnot respond to requests for interviews about the story.

Cara had been to New Zealand many times. He lived in Sydney, Australia,where he allegedly ran a travel agency. His wife and children have sincereturned to Israel.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has refused to comment until aftersentencing, but observers said her government likely would re-evaluate thepolicy of granting visas to visiting Israelis following the hearing. Atpresent, Israelis do not need a visa to visit the country.

Sagiv also refused to comment on the case until after the sentencing. GeoffLevy, co-president of the Auckland Jewish Council and a lawyer on the teamdefending Cara, told JTA, "Jews in Auckland are not happy with theattention the media has whipped up with regard to this case.

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